Xiaomi is one of the largest brands in the tech world, expanding its product offering from smartphones to several IoT products. As one of the leading brands in India, Xiaomi has promoted its products under the Mi brand. However, the company plans to stop the Mi branding and remain Xiaomi.
As confusing as this might be, let's take a look at how huge Xiaomi is. Firstly, the brand has a couple of sub-companies functioning under it, which are Redmi and Poco. Poco has separated from Xiaomi but still depends on the company for its OS and other factors. That said, Mi is also a sub-brand of the company, and its first phone was launched under the Mi brand 10 years ago.
Now onwards, Xiaomi will launch new products under the Xiaomi branding and not Mi, a Xiaomi executive told XDA Developers. The new trend has started with the launch of the MIX 4 phone and all-new phones and other gadgets will follow suit. Simply put, we'll now have Xiaomi, Redmi, and Poco brands all under one umbrella, whereas Mi will slowly disappear.
One also needs to understand that Xiaomi is one of the most diverse companies. While it's popular for smartphones, the company also offers several other products like televisions, laptops, refrigerators, air fryers, smartwatches, scooters, robots, hairdryers, and more. All of these release under the Xiaomi brand.
On the other hand, the Redmi brand is quite popular, especially in India and other Asian countries. The Redmi brand has emerged as one of the most sought-after brands, thanks to its affordable price tag and attractive features. Poco too comes with premium specs that can often be compared with flagship phones.
The report further explains the meaning behind both Xiaomi and Mi. Xiaomi translates to "millet", which is one of the smallest grain crops. "Xiao", on the other hand, refers to "small" in Chinese. Lei Jun, the co-founder and CEO of Xiaomi, had explained that the name Xiaomi is tied to the concept that a small grain of rice Buddhist is as great as a mountain; which further suggests the company is focused on smaller things.
That said, Jun also said that Mi stood for two things: Mobile Internet and Mission Impossible. Considering how far the company has grown today, both the Xiaomi and Mi branding makes sense. In fact, the first product from Xiaomi was MIUI custom software that is found on all Xiaomi smartphones.
Xiaomi has emerged as the world's top smartphone brand, closely beating Samsung. Xiaomi and its sub-brand phone sales have topped the charts in recent times. But it looks like Xiaomi wants consumers to know that it's more than just smartphones with the Mi branding.
As Xiaomi is already shipping products with the Xiaomi branding in the global market, the company perhaps believes it's time to erase the Mi branding. It now remains to be seen how this change in strategy and branding will affect future sales.